Back at the time of it’s inception, gather.com was one of the premier websites for writers to showcase their work and abilities – and snag a few rewards for doing so. As time rolled on they remained the same and added an element of “newsiness” to their site by incorporating the Gather Essentials (major categories for posts – Money, News, Politics, Food, A&E, Movies, etc.) In recent times, it seems that gather has moved away from any sort of creative or writers showcase and has become in their words “the premier social networking website for the 35+ crowd”. Now that the social networking giant FaceBook has all but snagged every last bit of that crowd and allowed them to socially network in a popular and much easier way than was available on gather, it seems that gather is somewhat lost yet again.
I will give credit to gather for being a social network – but not much. Users can have their own profile, complete status updates, join public or private groups, and comment on the profiles. Yet this all seems to me to be the extent of gathers social networking experience. If I were to categorize gather.com I would place them in the category of “discussion engine”, much along the lines of the popular website MyLot. Yet, MyLot is explicitly a place for discussion while gather chooses to spin themselves to the world as a social networking community. Recent talks have occurred within the gather community about licensing the content of news agencies. Doing so would solidify gathers move to a discussion engine, and would thus make them almost no different at all than MyLot.
I think it is time for gather to sharpen their focus altogether. Right now they are this sort of crippled hybrid of an outdated and generally non-easily navigable social network and content discussion and publishing platform for users. I think it is time that gather chose one or the other – or completely revamped their focus to what the site was originally about. Although, I think revamping the focus to the original intention of the site is almost impossible given the demographic of people using the site and the purposes for which they use it (points = $$ and gift cards…i.e. freebie hunters). Within this particular demographic of people, quality is often hard to come by as their main concern is getting that next CVS or Target gift card. Which ultimately means this – Gather needs to re-release itself as a discussion engine. Give members licensed news content, create official groups and subgroups (gather essentials), create a “general” category for all posts not relating to a specific group, edit out the video sharing feature, and axe member created groups.
The stage is set, and right now is the perfect time for gather to rebrand itself as a discussion engine. Gather’s scripting is far superior to that of MyLot, allowing users to comment with one click with no need for a page refresh while comments on MyLot take three clicks. Gather has the potential to be the FaceBook of discussion websites while MyLot remains the outdate MySpace. It is time to cut the dead weight, and own up to what you really are. How about it?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember Gather, although I don’t think I was ever a part of it. I’m sure it’s gong to have a tough time making a comeback against social networks of today.
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Your post full of whining and crying is undermined by your inability to understand the basic rules of grammar, as well as your constant need for attention. Keep in mind that sites like Facebook, and Gather are ultimately a BUSINESS and if they had to depend on the majority of amateur content that has been produced in order to be a successful business, they would have been out of business long long long long ago.
Find another site, and I am sorry your parents neglected you so much as a child that you feel the need to spew your feelings out to a world of strangers.
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Joe Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
This bro here really likes Gather. Wonder if he knows that when you say things like “long, long, long,” you’re supposed to put a comma between them. His comment full of whining and crying is undermined by his inability to understand the basic rules of grammar, as well as his constant need for attention.
Joe’s last blog post..Shark Speed – Sea Sick Music
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Critiquing me shows that your ability for deflection blocks your introspection. Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow! How is that unemployment working out for you? Working on that blog? Writing those reviews no one reads? Drinking those lattes?
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Joe Reply:
June 4th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I didn’t know I was unemployed.
Joe’s last blog post..Eulogies – Here Anonymous
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Dear Thomas Anderson,
I see no real need for you to attack me or my family personally. What kind of connection to gather do you have? Why do you care about gather so much? Why do you care about my life so much? Perhaps if you were to use some sort of real identity or email address rather than hiding behind the internet I would be able to understand why you are taking my thoughts and reviews as personally as you are. Really. There is nothing to be scared of. I am actually a pretty nice guy.
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